316 
THE* BUBAL fJEW-YORKER. 
MAY 16t 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERT SATURDAY. 
CONDUCTED BY 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No.'34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1880. 
Cheerfulness is tlie daughter of em¬ 
ployment. Says Bisliop Horne, “ I have 
known a man to come home in high spir¬ 
its from a funeral, merely because he had 
had the management of it.” 
form a handsome and very acceptable pre¬ 
mium, which the housewife who recieves 
it for the superior quality of her butter 
and cheese, or the farmer who wins it by 
raising the largest yield of grain to the 
acre, or for having the beet pigs, sheep 
or cows, can treasure up as a pleasing 
memento of victory, but practically it is 
of no use except as an ornament. If the 
premiums, on the other hand, consist of 
money, it is generally the case that it is 
less profitably invested than by subscrib¬ 
ing for an agricultural journal. We hope 
that this idea will prove to be catching, 
and that other Societies will adopt the 
same plan, not so much for the increase 
it is likely to give to our subscription list, 
as because an agricultural paper is a 
most benefical aud suitable premium for 
agricultural products. 
-- 
Our contributor, Dr. J. B. Lawes, of 
Roth masted, England, in a late private 
letter to the Rural New-Yorker, states 
as follows: , „ _ . , 
“We had a wonderfully dry sprmg and 
oue well suited to get iu our crops ; but 
the wheat does not look well, and we shall 
require a large foreign supply. 
-- 
We have just been reading iu the col¬ 
umns of a widely-circulated journal, that 
the most promising of the new fodder 
plants are Pearl (Oat-tail) millet and 
Doura, called also Egyptian corn, China 
corn, Pampas rice, etc. It is painful to 
those who really have the good of agri¬ 
culture at heart aud who have tested 
those plants, to see such reckless aud 
mischievous commendations. All but 
one (possibly two) of the 1) our as sen<l up 
but a single stalk, and are far inferior to 
Indian corn nB fodder plants. Oat-tail 
millet for the N orth, is little less than u 
humbug. 
Sixty-one horses bred by the Earl of 
Ellesmere, on bis estate of Worsley Hall, 
were recently sold at auction by his agent, 
Capt, Heaton. Brood mares went from 
58 to 170 guineas ($290<&850); fillies from 
27 to 280 guineas ($135('A1 -400); stallions 
85 to 320 guineas (425(^1,600); entire 
colts, 40 to 280 guineas ($200(^1,400). 
The average of the 61 horses was about 
$600—a well paying price lor cart horses; 
as it is little more trouble to breed and 
rear them than cattle, they are so gentle 
and, on the whole, probably no more ex¬ 
pensive ; for the colts are so power hi 
they can be put t,o gentle work on the 
farm or road at two years old; the mares 
can be used almost to foaling time, and 
begin again a few days after foaling, while 
the stallions are all the better for con¬ 
stant labor, except during the breeding 
season, and even then they may be 
worked prudently about half ol eaoh 
day. 
It very frequently happens that young 
pear and other fruit trees blossom and, 
if permitted to do so, bear fruit the same 
season that they are planted. Wo have 
had the blossoms and fruit of such trees 
pointed out to us as evidence that the 
trees were thriving particularly well. 
Such evidence, however, is indicative 
rather of weakness than of vigor. There 
is nothing more harmful to young trees 
than to permit them to bear fruit the year 
of transplantation. Even for dwarf Pears, 
the third year is soon enough for them 
to bear, and the sixth year is soon enough 
for the generality of standards. Our 
readers will find that if they suffer young 
trees to mature fruit the first or second 
year, their vigor will, in most cases, be 
impaired for ever after, and having borne 
at this early age, they will not, as a rule, 
bear again in five or six years afterwards. 
The temptation to inexperienced fruit¬ 
growers to see their young trees in fruit 
as soon as may be, is considerable. It is 
because wo yielded to such temptations, 
that we are now able to guard our readers 
against falling into the same error. Fruit¬ 
bearing is an exhausting process, and 
only trees that have arrived at a certain 
age or maturity can exercise the function 
without endangering their health and 
strength. 
A capital idea has occurred to the 
managers of the Agricultural Society in 
Washington Co., Maryland. Instead 
of offering money premiums of one 
to five or six dollars for the exhibits, 
they have decided upon the plan of offer¬ 
ing a choice among a few first-class agri¬ 
cultural journals, for which the associa¬ 
tion will pay the subscription for one or 
more years, according to the value of the 
premium. This is an example worthy of 
imitation. It is the best possible way of 
benefiting the prize-takers, as the pre¬ 
mium itself gives instruction in the calling 
in which they are striving to excel. A silver 
chalice, with engraved monogram, may 
Before the New York Legislature 
there is now a bill, called the Hepburn 
bill after its introducer, whose object is 
to put au end to the unfair discrimination 
in freight charges made by our railroads 
in favor of certain persons and places to 
the injury of the general public. From 
one end of the country to another com¬ 
plaints are high and deep of the abuses, 
iu this direction, of the privileges granted 
to railroad companies by the public for 
the public benefit; but which have been 
perverted to the public disadvantage. 
This bill ought to pass, and those among 
our law-makers who oppose the just mea¬ 
sure should be held in unfavorable re¬ 
membrance at election time. We learn, 
however, that from rnostof the large towns 
through which railroads run, prominent 
business men are Hocking to Albany to op¬ 
pose it, and that tue lobby that is schem¬ 
ing against it, is unusually busy aud HubIi. 
Among the opponents of the measure 
there are few who are not directly or in¬ 
directly privately benefited by the pub¬ 
lic grievances it seeks to remove. Those 
merchants who arc plotting against its 
passage have in nearly every ease con¬ 
tracts with the railroad companies at ex¬ 
ceptionally low rates, which give them 
unfair advantages in trade over their fel¬ 
low townsmeninthe same lines of business. 
Whence comes this right arrogated by 
the railroad comjianies to “build up” the 
business of certain places aud certain 
men to the detriment of other men and 
other places V What rights the compan¬ 
ies have were conceded to them by the 
People for their own benefit, and this 
certainly was not at first among them, nor 
do we remember that the People have 
ever since been foolish enough to add it 
to the original concessions. It is a griev¬ 
ous abuse that should be at ouee re¬ 
dressed. Even if the measure referred 
to, passes it will only place the present 
privileged classes on an equal footing in 
the race for wealth with their fellow citi¬ 
zens, a position which no fair-minded 
man should objeet to m a Republic. 
-- 
At t'bia lively season our friends are 
mostly too busy to contribute largely to 
their favorite “Everywhere;” but from 
telegrams to the New York papers and 
other sources, we ieam that rains have 
lately been general throughout the West 
from Texas to Minnesota, just in time to 
dissipate fears of drought iu many places, 
to push on wheat and oats, and help 
crops of all sorts. Wheat is unusually 
advanced in quite a large number of 
places, such reports being specially no¬ 
ticeable from southern Illinois, Missouri, 
Texas aud Georgia, some of it having 
been cut as early as the 1st of May in 
some parts of tlie last State, while in 
the neighboring State of South Carolina, 
although the spring was eailier than 
usual, the crops are said to be a fortnight 
later. All along the Ohio Valley the 
prospects for winter wheat are reported 
fine, and, indeed, all the reports we have 
seen from every section speak more or 
less enthusiastically of the outlook for it, 
though in several places the season is de¬ 
cidedly backward. This is exceptionally 
the case in Minnesota, but the outlook 
even there for wheat is reported good— 
that is, for the spring varieties. The 
cotton crop is, on the whole, iu a line 
condition all over the South, aud the 
high prices of last year have stimulated 
the planters to put iu a considerably 
larger acreage tlian usual. Accounts 
from the Southern tobacco fields, how¬ 
ever, complain of a rather poor outlook, 
especially iu Virginia, where the Hy is 
particularly busy aud numerous. There 
will be, most likely, a good yield of 
peaches, the reports of utter ruin to 
the crop, even from Delaware, having 
thin year been much milder and fewer 
than usual, while some accounts venture 
to speak even buoyantly, especially those 
from the West and South—a rare exin bi tion 
of confidence from the peach regions. 
Where strawberries were nipped by the 
frost, the second bloom is producing a 
good crop, and there is little danger but 
our markets will be abundantly supplied. 
Apples, Pears, Cherries, and especially 
Grapes, seem to be “putting their best 
leg foremost” on the march to an abun¬ 
dant harvest, and, so far as quantity and 
quality of products are concerned, the 
f .rmer can, from present indications, sing 
hallelujah—but, by way of caution, how 
about prices? 
BREVITIES. 
Qua usual “ comic ” on the laBt page is 
omitted this week to accommodate our adver¬ 
tising patronB. 
Friends would oblige ns and insure for them¬ 
selves answers more promptly, if they would 
send all questions pertaining to Domestic 
Economy to Mrs. Emily Maple. 
In the use of the concentrated fertilizers, we 
oblige our hands to mix them with an equal 
bulk of moist (i. e., not dry) soil. This in¬ 
sures against some loss. They arc not blown 
bo far off by the wind and the distribution is 
more equal. 
The Pacific Rural Press, we see. gives EU- 
wanger aud Barry’s cut of Souvenir du Cou- 
gres Pear. But the Press is wrong in saying 
that it has just been made public. The Rural 
New-Yorker gave its own illustration of this 
pear over five years ago. 
The oleomargarine men are just now spend¬ 
ing a “mint" of money in advertising their 
concoction. Well, they ought to be able to 
afford a good round sum, as they sell for butter 
prices what costs them about 10 cents a pound, 
according to some estimates. 
A fact worthy of note is one stated in the 
London Agricultural Gazette. A writer states 
that he commenced cutting Prickly Comfrey 
on the 23d of April for two damless young 
lambs abont 18 days old. that wouUL eat nothing 
due. They ate it greedily at once ! 
Rural Farm, Long Island, N. f., May 8.— 
Weather rather dry. Grass is growing finely. 
Wheat never looked better. We hope to have 
interesting reports to make respecting our 25 
varieties. We are now preparing the ground 
for comparative tests of many new sorts of po¬ 
tatoes. 
Of the little orchard of forty dwarf Pears 
and Apples (Apples on Paradise stock), which 
we planted at the Rural’s Farm last fall, not 
one has been injured in the least by the past 
winter. Years ago our experience in fall- 
planting was very different. A large propor¬ 
tion were injured—some killed. But the win¬ 
ter was a severe one. 
It may now be seen that many of the agri¬ 
cultural journals who were at pains to speak 
of Commissioner Le Due as a fool, etc., for his 
advocacy of the Northern sugar industry, are 
now urging furilicrs to plant Eurly Amber 
(Jane. But we have not seen that they have 
apologized to the Commissioner, or acknowl¬ 
edged that in this instance they were them¬ 
selves the fools. 
Alexander Delmar, the statistician, shows 
that from 1818 to 1856, it cost au outlay of 
$2,256,000,000 in capital and labor, to dig $450,- 
000.000 out of California mines—a poor show 
for the mines, that! The same vast outlay in¬ 
vested in digging the soil with the rudeBt of 
our modem agricultural tools, would have 
made a return of—how many more hundreds, 
aye, thousands of millions ? 
Bad news comes from the tobacco fields of 
Virginia. Intelligence received in Petersburg 
on the 6th iust. from different sections of the 
Slute, reports a greater scarcity of tobacco 
plants than bus been known for a uumber of 
yearB, while those growing arc being rapidly 
destroyed by the tobacco fly. So discouraged 
are farmers that in mauy cases the ground 
prepared for tobacco is being planted with corn 
and peas. Not more than one-fourth of the 
usual crop is expected to be made this year. 
The extraordinarily large uumber of immi¬ 
grants settling among ns this year, must add 
considerably to the home demaud for farm 
products of all kinds, inasmuch as very few, 
if any, of the new-comers will be able, the first 
year, to contribute materially towards raising 
their own sustenance. It is reasonably esti¬ 
mated that, during the twelvemonth, an addi¬ 
tion of at least 300,000 will in this way be 
made to the mouths that will have to be fed 
within our borders—a goodly army it will re¬ 
quire heavy requisitions on our commissary 
stores to maintain. 
In the Rural of April 24, appeared an edi¬ 
torial article headed “How to Buy a Horse," 
written at the result of our thoughts upon the 
points t« be observed iu an intended transac¬ 
tion of that sort. The article has been pretty 
widely copied by our contemporaries, but in 
very few cases has due “ credit" been given 
to Ibis paper. While some have assigned its 
origin to other papers, others have boldly ap¬ 
propriated it aB orignal matter. A little more 
care, gentlemen editors, a little more care iu 
giving “credit,” or a little more honesty— 
unless the mistakes were due to that Bcape- 
goat, the compositor. 
Horses, if well bred, and kindly broken, and 
not over-fast driven, or strained at heavy 
loads before eight years old, are in their prime 
from that age to 16, and serviceable on till 24 
to SO years of age. We have seen horses at 
these later ageB, when properly used, whirii 
appeared more like colts than aged animals, 
and were still equal to a good day's drive on 
the road or work on the farm. A friend of 
ours kept a saddle horse till past 45 years of 
age, and ho was still an active traveler. He 
probably might have done good service till 50 
or more, had he not been accidentally killed, 
if yon wish to obtain serviceable borecs to the 
above ages, be very careful in breaking and 
using them till eight years old. At this age 
bone and muBcle have attained their full 
strength, and horses may with impunity be 
worked harder than when younger. 
On Friday last the first barrel of flour from 
this year's wheat crop, reached this city from 
Americas, G&., and was sold by auction at the 
Produce Exchange for $15. It will now be 
sent to Liverpool, where it will bo resold in the 
same wav, the proceeds to be devoted to the 
repairs of the Episcopal Church at Americas. 
Considering the remarkably early date at which 
the product eamo to market, and the worthy 
object which its price is to benefit, it seems to 
ns thatthe members of theExehange were very 
tame in their "bidding”; surely here was a 
splendid opportunity for vigorously “ hulling” 
the flour market. 
In the nine months endiug March SI last, 
onr aggregate exports of wheat, and of flour 
reduced to wheat, from all the Atlantic ports, 
amounted to 118,840,522 bushels, against 95,- 
864,254 during the corresponding period last 
year. Their declared value was $147,324,771, 
against $103,143,510 last year. The vast pre¬ 
ponderance ol our wheat exports over those 
of all other breadstuffs, is shown by the fact 
that the total value or the latter was only $35,- 
807,455, making the aggregate of all our ex¬ 
ports or breadstuffs, $182,632,286. against 
$182,032,580 last year -an increase of upwards 
of $50,000,000, with greatly increased exports 
from California and Oregon not included. 
We have of late received so many packages 
of plants and seeds to be tested in onr Experi¬ 
ment Grounds, that we have not attempted to 
acknowledge their receipt bv letter. Those 
who have sent them, however, may feel assured 
that we shall try all that seem to be worthy of 
trial, aud that wc shall report upon all that 
prove of special value In the case of Grape¬ 
vines, wc have been requested to return in the 
fall the season’s growth of cane. This we can¬ 
not agree to do. We have also been cautioned 
againBt giving away or soiling buds or cuttings. 
We can only repeat what we have grown tired 
of repeating, viz.: that we have never sold cut¬ 
tings, buds, seeds or plants of auy description, 
and we hold that we have no right to give 
away plants sent to us to he tested, until such 
plants arc offered for sale generally. 
The Chamber of Commerce of this city is 
petitioning Congress to remove the import 
duties on 9 alt, and similar bodies in other cities 
either have already sent like petitions to Con¬ 
gress, or intend to do so. There is little doubt 
but that the request will be granted. Now let 
the Legislature of New York State remove the 
odious tax it has imposed on foreign salt in 
tlie shape of discriminative caual Ireight, in 
favor of the Onondaga Salt Works. Wherein 
lies the equity of taxing the farmers and other 
residents of Western New York and of all the 
Western States for the benefit of this company? 
Outside of the railroads, there is not a corpor¬ 
ation in the State that has done more to cor¬ 
rupt our Legislature, through means of a pow¬ 
erful Albany lobby. Doubtless it is to this 
nefarious influence, that the imposition of this 
hateful tax and its continuance, aredue. How 
long shall its baneful incentives pervert legisla¬ 
tion ? 
A bill is now before the California Legisla¬ 
ture imposing a tax, in the shape of a license, 
upon every bull, jack or stallion kept for the 
purposes of propagating their kinds. The name, 
age, pedigree and classification of each animal 
are to be recorded, and the record must be open 
to public inspection. The sum realized from 
the licenses is to be paid into the “ Stock 
Breeders’ Fund,” which is to be distributed as 
premiums on stock at exhibitions to be held at 
the annual State fairs, after a deduction of 
$500 salary to be paid to an officer having 
charge of the distribution ol the fund. The 
passage of such a bill should be strenuously 
opposed hy all who desire the improvement of 
the live stock of the State aud the consequent 
increase of its wealth, Instead of taxing the 
first-class males, it would pay the State to offer 
bounties for them, as is profitably done by the 
British Government of India, especially with 
regard to thoroughbred horses. 
“Tub Land of the Free and the Home of 
the Brave" seems destined to monopolize 
nearly all theexodustors from "effete Europe" 
thiB ycur. Of the 18,863 emigrants from Liver¬ 
pool in March, 12,167 came directlj to these 
hopeful shores; 812 went to British North 
America, but many of these, too, will come to 
the States either rlghtaway, or after they have 
become disgusted with their more northern 
homes, as thousands of Canadians, for in¬ 
stance, are becoming every month. Indeed, 
statistics show that the emigration from Cana¬ 
da to this country, is heavier than the immi¬ 
gration to the Dominion from the rest of the 
world. Of the rest of those Liverpool exo- 
dusters 170 went to South America, 28 to Aus¬ 
tralia, 67 to the West Indies, 62 to China aud 
86 to the West Coast of Africa. The total emi¬ 
gration from that port during the first quarter 
of this year was 23,764, an increase over the 
corresponding three months last year, of no 
less than 13,437! 
One of the most interesting events in the hor¬ 
ticultural world of late, is a sale at auction of one 
of the choicest collection of Orchids to be found 
on this side of the Atlantic. It was a private 
collection, belonging to Mr. Geo. Tweddle.of Al¬ 
bany,N Y. The ealetook place at the seed store 
of Messrs. Young * Elliott, Cortlandt St., this 
city. The collection consisted of 359 specimens 
in about 300 varieties, and brought a total Of 
$6,500, or, on an average more than $18 
upiece. The event had called together the 
most noted Orchid fancierB from all parts of 
the United States. We give the names of a 
few of the highest-priced specimens. Vanda 
Suavis var.Veitehii, was considered the choicest 
plant in the collection, and bron^bt $250, and 
Vanda tricolor var. Cornlngii Bold for $225; 
both were bought by Mr. Corning.of Albany, 
N. Y. Saecolabium guttatum Halfordianuui 
was bought by Do Witt Smith, Lee, Mass., who 
paid $200 for it. Thu following were bought 
by Mrs. Morgan of tbiB city, a lady who is 
noted for her excellent taste In matters of art 
as well as In the selection of plants: Cattleya 
labiata, $175; Angraecum Sesquipedale, $13.>; 
, Odontoglossum Alexandria, $100; Odonto- 
glossum vexiUariutu, $100. A large number 
of the plauts brought between $30 aud $^0 
apiece. These prices demonstrate that fanciers 
for really choice varieties are not lacking. 
